Thread by @FOSSfirefighter

It's amazing how much this *hasn't* changed over the years. First VM up and running. Let's see if I can get two to talk to each other.

Feel the old school network goodness! This has been two days in the making.

I do legit miss how customizable the look and feel of the desktop was. Emerald Green was how I had my first laptop for a long time.

I know you can customize in Win10, but it's not the same.

File sharing def. works. I set up a fake network printer, but I'm more interested in looking at some of the other network functionality that has perhaps vanished over the years.

The first application to look at is perhaps an unusual choice but it's clipboard viewer: This lets you see what's on your clipboard, but it seems rather complex for just a viewer application.

Like, for example, why does my clipbook viewer have the ability to select another computer on the network?

This might make a hint.

This is getting complicated. The "Start Application on Connect", huh ..

LAB now can see something on FILESRV

And would you look at that. Interestingly, the formatting didn't make it across. I wonder if that's what the "Start Application" thing is for.

Still, this is basically early 90s wiki. You'd have a bunch of "Clipbooks" you'd share with everyone and be able to communicate with.

Taking a peek in Wireshark, this is all happening over NetDDE on Layer 2 NetBIOS. Interestingly, I'd think it have done it over IPX, although there might be a built in preference list.

Paging @XioNYC

I'm kinda curious when this feature went away. I want to say NT4 still had the networked clipboard, and I'm pretty sure Windows 95 didn't but I'd actually have to install them to take a look.

Moving down the line, there's Microsoft Mail. This is *sorta* a forerunner to Exchange, but instead of using MAPI, it's basically a single PST on a network share that everyone can access. Let's set it up

INFOSEC FAIL DETECTED!

This one is rather egregious because Windows has a password field, and *every* other password field I found has been covered up!

Interesting, this is both oddly informative and detailed. Obviously it was by the company Microsoft bought Mail from :)

Looking at the filesystem, this def. isn't PST. Wikipedia might be talking about the later Microsoft Messenger which worked with this, or talking about the client side DB.

It does look like Exchange 4/5 stuff so DNA intermingled.

There's a pretty simple administration tool. The question is, if this is all on a file share, there's probably no "real" security. The Windows NT/OS2 servers might be better though. Let me draft a test email.

Address book: CHECK!

Looks OK! Let's get the other PC logged in.

Just to show it really *is* a file share!

Meet your security. There's a single global password protecting this thing.

WAIT A TIC! I FOLLOWED THE INSTRUCTIONS!

(unless it wants the WGPO folder shared instead in which case I take back clear and accurate documentation)

Moving the shared folder to WGPO did the trick. Incidently, the "Mailbox Password" is just the password on the fileshare.

Wait, I hit "No" and I get the creation screen?

There's no possible way Microsoft made it so anyone can just make a mailbox. That would be a sysadmin nightmare ...

It didn't work because I didn't set the permissions right but ... WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE. I'm going to see if I can login and use it as Read Only. I doubt it, but with MSFT, you never know

Very classy login screen

Yup, needs to be read-write. Now I feel like everything can be administrator!

YOU'VE GOT MAIL!

Interestingly, the Postmaster Administration optin is gone. That must only exist on the first account. I mean, its still a public read/write fileshare so security is meh.

I wonder how you reset the PW if you loose it? Anyone want to try REing the format?

Here's what it looks like logged in Administrator. Because nothing says UI/UX like disappearing/reappearing items.

Quality Shitpost Here!

Now I need to see if I can log off and actually make a new mailbox.

Logging off is a bit weird. It's done with the "Log On/Off" app which just prompts this. I actually haven't seen a login dialog aside from I start Windows.

Ok ... doing that just prompted me to log in, it didn't give me the question "Do you have a mailbox". I wonder where it stores its settings ...

I found the documentation (mail.wri) while looking for the config. This would need NWLINK or Novell's offical redirector to work but again, its just a file share.

Amazingly, the documentation says where the file SHOULD be. Let's ignore its in C:\WINDOWS, that shit lasted up to ME so it's not like its super fail compared.

One problem:

Oh, no wait, I needed to refresh File Manager, the file showed up. I am curious if anyone can just make a mailbox on the fly.

Yup, arbitrary users can, in fact, create new mailboxes on the WGPO share. I'm not surprised.

Interestingly, Mail (the app) didn't refresh to see that I'm on a new login so I got "NCommander"'s mail. There's so much wrong with this.

I was wondering why my second test mail didn't go through. I guess MS Mail sends in batches? I didn't see an option to flush the mailbox.

THIS WON'T HAVE CAUSED CONFUSION!

1990s ransomware email. Cause network security was never good and arguably hasn't gotten better.

Oh points though, it is Y2K compliant. That's a change from a bunch of other applications even in Windows itself!

Oh neat, when new email arrives, the cursor icon changes. I wonder if it plays a sound. Now I need to install a soundcard and drivers.

Um, creative, that's not how Microsoft was capitalized.

... or at least it isn't now. Did MSFT actually use this like how NEXTSTEP changed capitalization every release?

The grammar failures keep on going tonight. Interestingly, the installer is DOS based, this showed up after starting Windows again

Familiar dialogue, this is. Failure, it indicates.

OK QEMU, Where'd you hide the soundblaster?

sb16test sees it on the IO port, but it can't initialize the DMA interface. I'm sorta wondering if QEMU's SoundBlaster emulation is not complete ...

(I don't think I've ever even tried it before)

Yeah it's in fact incomplete or bit rotten. I get DMA failures, but the FM Music test works if I also enable adlib ... unless the network card is possibly conflicting?

I do kinda want to test this more in-depth but this feels like "DANGER WILL ROBINSON" pothole territory ...

I forgot Windows has a built in Soundblaster driver so let me try that before I completely tap out.

Interestingly, THAT worked. I wonder if the "SoundBlaster 16" QEMU emulates is more a SB1, or its a DMA bug. I now have the best WAV files.

THIS RAISES FAR MORE QUESTIONS THAN IT ANSWERS!

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN "Highest Security" AND "DoubleSpace"?!

WHAT SECURITY?!

I ... what ... I don't even. Why do you even have a selector between these options?! It's a mailbox on a public file share.

I don't even know who to @ about this. It's ...

@Foone's death generator doesn't have a Windows GPF error.

I feel like he needs one for this or Security vs. DoubleSpace ...

OH. THE FINAL KICKER.

I didn't even get a sound effect! The message showed up but no tone! That being said, my PC might ring when the chat program is run.

Actually, it appears the message didn't send. However, this brings me to another point. Microsoft had two separate drive compression products, DriveSpace and DoubleSpace.

DoubleSpace was shipped as part of MS-DOS 6, and was based on code from Stacker. DriveSpace came later as part of MS-DOS 6.22

There is actually two versions of Windows 3.11, RTM and the a version. The only difference is if Windows refers DriveSpace vs. DoubleSpace.

File Manager clearly shows DriveSpace. The original RTM release would have been doublespace as the name hasn't changed.

In short, I found something Microsoft QA missed \o/.

Also, I got the alert sound to play, it's the Standard Windows Chime. Mail sending is kinda glitchy though ...

Ok, having had a moment to collect myself, I can guess at what this done. Mail is stored locally in MMF format in addition to the copy in the Post Office. My guess is this is likely compressed on disk in some way. DriveSpace does full disk compression.

What this option likely does is disable MMF compression, allowing DriveSpace to see the plain text and compress it as a single unit, getting a higher overall compression ratio. What this option should actually be defining the compression setting for MMF.

My guess is someone thought "oh, its compressed with an undocumented format, it's secure", aka a real-life case of security through obscurity. Hence "Highest Security" vs. "DoubleSpace".

Its still really stupid. I'll actually buy someone a pizza or equivalent if they want to RE the format (DM me and I'll send the WGPO and the MMF files) just because I'd like proof if it really is *that* idiotic under the hood.

Recovering my sanity a bit, I went looking through the network control panel. Interesting, WfW has an Event Log ala the Windows NT versions.

The log is part of the Network Monitor, and tracks all sorts of things we see in the NT versions. This is kinda interesting, I don't think this feature made it into the 9x line of Windows or if it did, it was well buried.

Watcher is pretty simple. Shows what is being used by who and how many files open. It looks like "File Open" is lingo for file locks because I do have a few files open but the count is zero.

Also, the watcher doesn't update in real time.

Actually, going into the log is a bit more comprehensive. I don't think it shows file access, but I guess Printers should show up here. Since I now have it on, I'll check it from time to time.

Also, the default save name is "audit.csv". Probably exists for compliance reasons.

That actually may explain why this disappeared in 9x. At the time, NT was still very immature, and "enterprise" would more likely be on OS/2. As soon as a full Windows solution was available though, this feature got cut.

That's probably also why Microsoft Messaging (MS Mail in 95/NT) can't create a Post Office AFAIK. Windows for Workgroups was in the period where Microsoft were seriously pushing peer to peer networking. Domains exist here but it's an afterthought at best.

I know this is in Windows 3.1, but I did legitimately forget how much Microsoft used to push Object Linking and Embedding. The Packager allowed you to basically take a whole lot of anything and make it into a single OLE object you could stick in a doc.

The help file goes into detail explaining how you could put DOS commands into a package to have them run by a double click. I'd need to install Word or similar to actually explore this, I don't think Write had real OLE capability.

OLE stuck around a *long* time, and is technically COM now, although Microsoft don't really talk about making hypertext documents. One thing I learned from Googling is Microsoft required OLE support to get the certified on Windws 95 stamp.

Windows also had it's own equivalant of AutoHotkey, "Recorder" which everything it sounds like. I'm not actually sure when this met the grim reaper. I'm curious if it would work on Windows 10 if I copied it over ...

Here's another one, PIF editor. Basically, the old school version of the Compatibility tab. These technically never died although I think the editor was removed in XP. Win10 32-bit would likely still use them.

Def. not for the faint of heart. Windows 95 was when "developer" tools really started disappearing as part of the default install.

Hello, what's this?

It's a phone dialer! Win95 had a freestanding app for this, probably because Cardfile was removed. I didn't even know this was a thing.

Basically, it uses your modem to dial a phone number, and then you pick up the receiver. The pinnacle of 90s.

This isn't technically part of Windows 3.1, it shipped as part of MS-DOS 6, but

It supports a wopping 1234 viruses out of the box. There were definition update files for it, but I don't have those. What's really funny is this was made by Central Point Software.

Forgot the screenshot, there we go.

Central Point was bought by Symantec in 1994. Or in other words, DOS used to ship with Norton Anti-Virus's direct ancestor.

... its likely still more optimized than Windows Defender ...

One thing I'm curious though is its showing a drive label of "MS_DOS 6" on the network drive. Is it actually reading that from somewhere?

I switched the network drive one, and I'll change the one on the LAB VM.

How the devil is it doing that?

Yeah, it's showing up in DOS (or well DOS prompt) as well. Was this something SMB always had? Any Samba developers able to weigh in?

Anyway, time to move onto our next victim

Interestingly, it wants to sign into Mail. I could have sworn this isn't what it does normally. I have a clean(er) install in a fresh VM. Let's look what it does normally.

Ah, ok, it warns that it will only allow personal features to work. That makes total sense. Let's play with the network enabled version now.

What ...

HOW DOES THAT MAKE SENSE!

#Y2Kcalled #Retro #ohgodwhy

Fortunately, Schedule+ I control your reality. And in this case, the date and time.

TADA!

Honestly, this reminds me of Palm Desktop more than anything. I already see some interesting goodies here.

So the attendee list is directly loaded from the WGRO share. Interesting that Schedule+ blows a fuse and Mail doesn't. This is very Outlook/Exchange-esqe.

Might even be a common ancestor.

And thus this is what the "Messages" dialog is used for. I need to roll back the clock on the other VM to play with this properly.

Once again, I need to close and re-open Schedule+ to get to actually send anything. There's probably a timer, and its likely not noticible unless you literially have both machines side by side

So, now how am I informed about that my meeting request has been accepted?

If you guessed "Built in messaging" then have a biscuit.

Oooh, that's nice. it actually shows a check that the other person responded. Google Calendar could learn something about good UI design here.

Appointment books are networked, but there is an ACL. Amazingly, the default isn't public!

Interestingly, the ACLs are pretty advanced for something of this age. I'm guessing if this was used at @Microsoft for #Windows development, it would have become very important for managers to prevent developers from just deleting a meeting.

Honestly, I can't find too much to say about this one. It's a scheduler app. The only thing even notable in options is creating something to be a resource ...

Amusingly, archives use the .ARC extension. I very much doubt this is an ARC archive (an ancient compression format).

Also got some basic task management. Not sure what Private does given how the ACLs work. Probably hides the task or event from the assistants.

One other oddity, and this was in Mail too was "Exit and Sign Out". If I select this, it *also* closes Microsoft Mail and forces me to log in. This is a seperate login from the desktop and the network as far as I can tell.

Wait a minute, I just noticed something. Back in Mail, there's one global MMF holding the mail database. Here's how it looks when I'm logged in as NCommander.

And here's how it looks if I log in as "Hacker" ...

EVERYONE SHARES THE SAME INBOX.

Let me switch to FILESRV and log in there.

On FILESRV, I get the Admin mail because that's where it last signed in from. WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA?!

And just to show I'm *not* fucking with you all:

Ah ha, mystery solved! It downloads locally, but can be stored on the post office instead. So it's basically POP3, abiet the default settings mean everyone needs their own computer. Let's see if this works the way I think it does.

So changing your mailbox storage location *actually* moves it back and forth from the post office server. So you can get what you'd expect from ... any ... other mail client by changing the default.

There we go, mailbox mobility. Interesting, it remembers what messages and windows positions across machines. Still, there's enough WTF here that this is going to be it's own video.

Schedule+ however has a reasonable default, everything is stored on server unless you choose to work locally. That being said, it saves a local copy as a .cal file; each user has their own.

Seriously, the amount of WTFs in MSFT Mail was staggering. I think I've filled my quota for tech WTF for 2020.

I better close Mail and Schedule+ before the WTFs overtake me. Remote Access is a bit of a WTF in and itself, especially because it's not actually on the default install.

There's not a lot I can do with this one to be honest. As the installer says, this *needs* Windows NT or LANMAN to dial into. That being said, this is what would become Dial-up Networking in Windows 95. (RAS also existed in NT).

As the name suggests, it allows remote access, and modem connectivity was a big thing in that era. The problem is it only allows NetBIOS traffic to cross (WfW does not have TCP/IP in it's Winsock stack although MSFT made that a free download on their FTP).

The idea was you'd dial in, NetBIOS traffic would flow and you could access your network shares, mail and schedule (plus whatever else). It doesn't support standard SLIP or PPP. This might be an interesting thing to phreak for a @NYC2600 meeting.

The biggest problem here is I'd either need a serial modem and a PBX, or I'd need to rig up some sorta modem emulator I could attach to QEMU (or an actual PC). As it's non-IP based, I'm legit curious what it's using as a transport protocol ...

I already talked about NetWatcher. Log on/off really has nothing *to* show, so I guess that leaves Chat, and WinPopup

@threadreaderapp unroll